The present invention relates to a method of controlling a WEB server, the method being applied to a video data distributing system using retrieval functions of the WEB.
Protocols utilized on the Internet are comprehensively called World Wide Web (WWW) and servers which transmit information by use of the WWW are called WEB servers. Since WEB servers are operating worldwide, users capable of accessing the Internet can acquire information from such WEB servers. Information available to the users include primarily texts, still pictures, audio data, and video data of a low bit rate less than or equal to about 100 kilobits per second (Kb/s).
Additionally, there have been conducted business activities through the Internet, for example, a system in which each user accesses a WEB server, and selects articles or goods to buy the selected articles on credit using his or her credit card. An example of the system has been described in page 47 of the “Nikkei Multimedia” published from Nikkei BP (Vol. 1997. 1, No. 19).
To use the Internet, it is usually necessary for the user to subscribe to an Internet service provider. Thereafter, the user accesses the Internet service provider via a communication line to communicate with the Internet through the provider.
Attention has been attracted to the video-on-demand (VOD) service in which users can watch video data at any desired point of time. When a user desires a VOD service from a terminal device, the user first accesses the VOD server after powering the terminal device and then is presented with a list of available video data on its display. The user selects, for example, a genre or group of video data to watch so as to finally select one title of video data and then issues a request for the video data to the VOD server. In response to the request, the VOD server sends the required video data to the user. An example of the VOD server has been described in an article “Video On Demand” in pages 110 and 111 of the “Nikkei Multimedia” published from Nikkei BP (Vol. 1997. 2, No. 20).
The Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) stipulating standardization of bi-directional multimedia network services has determined a protocol to distribute digital audio/visual data. The DAVIC published “DAVIC 1.2 Specification” in December 1996. In the Specification, Part 12 “Configuration 4 scenario characteristics” (Chapter 9.19 in pages 83 to 147) describes a stipulation which makes it possible to access WEB servers via the Internet from a terminal device using the VOD for a network having a high throughput.